Clinton pardons 100

Patty Hearst: Heiress turned bankrobber

On his final day in office President Bill Clinton has used his prerogative to issue traditional pardons to more than 100 Americans, including his brother Roger and a former business partner, Susan McDougal.

Other notable names include Patty Hearst, the heiress sentenced to prison for bank robbery after being kidnapped by the radical Symionese Liberation Army.

Susan McDougal: jailed for not testifying about Clinton

Also on the list was Mr Clinton's one-time Housing Secretary, Henry Cisneros. He stepped down in 1996 amid allegations that he had lied to the FBI over payments to a former mistress.

Prominent names not included in the pardons are a former law partner of Hillary Clinton, Webster Hubble, and Jonathan Pollard, imprisoned for spying for Israel.

Susan McDougal served two prison sentences rather than give evidence against Mr Clinton in the Whitewater property affair.

"She's absolutely delighted... speechless for once in her life," her lawyer Mark Geragos said in remarks reported by the Associated Press news agency.

Roger Clinton was given a two year prison sentence in the 1980s for dealing in cocaine. President Clinton was subsequently best man at his wedding.

Among those who may have been hoping in vain for a pardon are:

• Michael Milken, a Wall Street financier who made millions in junk bonds before admitting to fraud
• Jonathan Pollard, who spied for Israel when he was an employee at the US defence department, passing thousands of documents to Israeli agents
• Leonard Peltier, an American Indian convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975

Presidents in the United States have the power to grant pardons, either freeing a person from prison or expunging their criminal record.